“Congress needs to take the plunge” in the new farm bill and “insist on conservation practices where it has, up until now, asked for cooperation while dangling a bit of cash,” said the Des Moines Register, published in the No. 1 corn and hog state. USDA’s soil and water conservation programs traditionally have relied on voluntary cooperation from farmers, aided by cost-sharing funds, but progress is unacceptably slow, said the newspaper in an editorial.
“All levels of government must make a significant and conscious paradigm shift,” wrote the Register’s editorial board. “Incentives are fine and need not go away. But with the farm bill, Congress needs to take the plunge and demand compliance with air and water pollution and carbon emission standards as at least a partial condition for receiving insurance benefits and other subsidies.”
Federally subsidized crop insurance, the largest U.S. support for farmers, is an obvious place to start, said the Register. “Plus, tying conservation standards to crop insurance subsidies could serve as both a carrot (paying ultra-generous subsidies to farmers who measurably reduce erosion, as an example) and a stick (making the insurance subsidy awarded for meeting conservation standards so lavish that farmers can’t afford not to reach them).”
To date, farmers have collected nearly $17 billion in crop insurance indemnities on 2023 crops. The government pays 62 cents of each $1 in premium. Farmers are obliged to protect wetlands and reduce soil losses on highly erodible land to be eligible for the premium subsidies.